As the procreator of three fabulous kids, who have all inherited my flare for the dramatic, I am either hysterically laughing, or operating in various modes of crisis control. Alfred Hitchcock once said that "drama is life, with the dull bits cut out", to which I reply - 'Where are the dull bits'?

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

As we packed to leave - I neglected to remember the 'no liquids on airplanes' rules. So - when the kids asked if they could fill their brand-spanking-new water bottles for the trip I acquiesced. Consequently, as we went through airport security I was told to throw the three water bottles away as there was no way to simply dispose of the liquid. My kids were audibly distraught over loosing their newly acquired water bottles with a handy-dandy freezable core, so.....I chug-a-lugged 24 ounces of water to get us through security.

After the water debacle, 'N' started complaining that his shorts were too tight. When I investigated the cause we came to discover that this size 8-9 boy was wearing his brother's size 4 shorts. (Adding to the problem was the fact that I had taken the shorts in by about three inches to fit skinny little 'Z'!)

'N' then started complaining that his carry-on backpack was WAY too heavy. Upon this investigation I discovered that he had packed nothing but hardcover books!

**Fast forward a few days where we found ourselves visiting my sister in Logan, UT. We decided to take a tubing trip down the canal adjacent to the Logan River. Lest you think that this would be cool refreshment on a hot day, bear in mind that the river and canal are running with recently melted snow, making the water temperature numbingly cold.

We started the trip with 4 adults: (Me, Mom, Heather (my sister), and Jenny (sister's room-mate) and the three kids. We purchased 5 tubes for the trip, placing two kids in a tube with two adults. Whilst floating down the frigid canal, 'N' (in his own tube) did his best to keep all of his body parts out of the H20. If you are familiar with 'the plank' (a strength building technique for the core) you can imagine what 'N' looked like atop his tube. It came as no surprise that as he was attempting to change positions, he fell into the canal, causing us much merriment, which we tried to ebb as he had cut his knee on a rock. Shortly thereafter, his tube popped and he went into the canal again. (And we did our best to hide our amusement!)

THEN - Heather's tube popped, Jenny and 'A's tube popped, and the three of them had to bush whack down the mountain and scale a fence to get back to the parking lot. The rest of us: Mom with 'N' and me with 'Z', made it to the end with 'Z' (who was in mortal fear of more tube pop-age) fretting the entire way.

Fast forward a few more days: we just returned from a camping trip to Daniel's Summit - above the Heber Valley. Other than a few issues with fire safety, and several insanely large insect bites we are unscathed!